


A Study in Spellcheck

by Queerasil



Series: Across the Board [1]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Author Favorite, Cyberbulling, Gayyyyyyyyy, LWS Trope Bingo Prompt, M/M, Met on the Internet - AU, One-Shot, Teenlock, chatrooms, meeting AU, trigger warning: bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-18
Updated: 2014-09-18
Packaged: 2018-02-17 21:50:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2324381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queerasil/pseuds/Queerasil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which John is lonely and decides to check out an online chat room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Study in Spellcheck

**Author's Note:**

> Possibly the most fun I've ever had writing.  
> There is a TRIGGER WARNING FOR BULLYING and SUICIDE. Bullying is horrible, and I wanted to showcase just how devastating it could be.  
> Otherwise...  
> Please enjoy!

*Note: This is for LWS Trope Bingo Card 3 prompt "Met on the Internet". This fic will cover the entirety of season 1. I had so much fun writing this that it should've been illegall.

...

JIM What the hell are you even still here for?

JIM You're bloody useless.

JIM No one loves you.

JIM No one even likes you.

JIM Just kill yourself. It's a whole lot easier than keeping this charade up.

Your chat partner has disconnect.

...

John scrolled through the list of chat rooms, desperately looking for one that didn't have the words 'sex' or 'horny' in it. After what seemed like hours of searching, he finally found a room labeled 'The Science of Deduction'. It sounded interesting, and possibly not an excuse for strangers to harass each other. Slightly nervous, he clicked on the chat room and waited for the log to load.

You are now chatting with a partner. Say hello!

JW 5:27 Hi, anyone there?

SH 5:28 Really? That's the question you ask. Of course someone's here.

JW 5:30 That's a bit rude.

SH 5:32 I'm a bit rude.

John rolled his eyes. He considered hitting 'refresh' and getting a new partner, but he didn't want to be (you know), RUDE.

JW 5:34 I can see that.

SH 5:37 Let me guess: You're here for a deduction?

It occurred to John that he really didn't know what a deduction was. He hoped it wasn't a sex thing.

JW 5:40 Yeah, sure.

SH 5:42 Alright then. Your grammar indicates most of what I need to know. You're a writer (or you aspire to be one, at least). No grammatical errors. You type slow. 'But this is the internet. Why would someone care about their grammar when speaking to complete strangers?' Good question. One would do that if one was self-conscious. Ergo, you care A LOT about what people think. Too much, probably. You chose to come to this chat room instead of one of the sex ones, which shows you're relatively anti-social. A quick glanced at your profile reveals you're probably the only person on this site who hasn't lied about your age. A strong sense of honor, then. Your sentences are short and to the point, which likely means you had a strict upbringing. Slightly snarky, though, which means you're not afraid of authority.

John stared blankly at his computer screen, consumed by a mixture of shock, anger, surprise and delight.

SH 5:45 So, to recap: You're an anti-social aspiring writer who cares about what strangers on the internet think. You have a strict sense of morals and honor.

SH 5:57 You're also very loyal very quickly.

JW 5:58 What makes you say that?

SH 5:59 Well, you're still around. Most people have pissed off by this point.

John smiled at that.

JW 6:02 Incredible! Absolutely brilliant!

SH 6:04 really?

JW 6:07 Yeah! That was amazing!

SH 6:09 That's not what people usually say.

JW 6:11 What do people usually say?

SH 6:13 'Piss off.'

JW 6:14 Well, I think it was brilliant.

Your chat partner has disconnected.

John sat, staring at his computer, waiting for the reply that would never come.

...

HEYITSMIKE So did you like it?

JW Yeah, I guess. Met this kind of strange bloke.

HEYITSMIKE Let me guess, the mysterious 'SH'?

JW Yeah. How'd you know?

HEYITSMIKE SH is the phantom of the motherfucking opera of chatrooms. He just pops up from time to time, insulting people, before crawling back to his lonely chatroom.

John didn't tell Mike that he thought SH was brilliant.

...

John logged onto The Science of Deduction the next morning to discover that SH wasn't alone. 8/19 filled. The most John had ever seen in a chatroom that wasn't about sex.

John waited to introduce himself because he didn't want to interrupt Sherlock's very, very important conversation.

You are now chatting. Say hi!

SH One at a time, please. Billy, you start first.

BILLYTHETWERP MY DRUGS HAVE GONE MISSING

SH Good luck with that. Anyone else?

NOTYOURHOUSEKEEPER What about those suicide/murders? Thought that'd be right up your alley.

SH Uh, tedious.

SALLY Freak. They didn't die so you could be entertained.

SH Obviously. If they did die for me, they would've done it a more interesting way. LES MOVING ON. Will you take the case?

John decided now was as good a time as any to jump in.

JW What case?

SH Oh, good, you're back.

SH Lestrade is being redundant and talking about the CABBIE chatroom suicide/murders.

John scratched his head, absentmindedly wracking his brain for information.

JW Never heard of it.

ANDY The haunted chatroom? The miserable meeting place? Chatroom 666? Never heard of it?

JW Nope.

SH Relatively simple. There's this chatroom that supposedly 'haunted'. Andy and Sally say that whoever logs on NeVeR rEtUrNs.

SALLY Not funny, Freak. Did you see the photos of that last girl's suicide that got leaked online?

SALLY Link.

John clicked the link without thinking, and instantly regretted it once he saw the gruesome pictures.

JW That's horrible. What happened?

ANDY She logged onto the chatroom, and then SHE DIED.

SH People don't just die spontaneously, you idiot.

ANDY She did.

LES Andy's right. No discernible cause of death. My dad's a DI and he's on the case and he says that she just kind of died.

JW But that's impossible.

SH Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains - however improbable - must be the truth.

LES Yeah. What he said. Will you take the case?

SH Fine.

ANDY I can help you.

SH Hell no.

LES What do you need?

SH An assistant.

Before John could stop himself, he had already clicked 'send'.

JW I'll help you.

SH Really?

JW Course.

SH They'll be dead bodies.

JW That's okay.

JW Well, not okay. I'm fine with it.

JW Not fine like I love dead bodies or anything.

JW You get my point.

SALLY Oh, look, the freak brigade's assembling.

SH Shut up, Sally.

SH Click link.

SH Come along, John.

And, against his better judgement and screaming conscience, John clicked the link.

...

JW What the hell are we doing?

SH Observing.

John sat back in his chair, rubbing his eyes and trying to see straight. He'd been staring at the screen for so long that his vision had blurred completely.

JW Observing what?

SH Humanity.

JW That's very vague.

SH Just lookout for anything suspicious.

John could barely see, let alone keep a vigilant watch over every single chatroom.

JW How did you even get this feature?

SH Friend of mine, Angelo. He's a hacker and good at it. He was able to hack the HTML and get us a bird's eye view of every single chatroom.

JW Yeah, and while that's great, I still don't know how we're supposed to find the murderer among all these perverts and horny teenagers.

SH I'll know.

Honestly, John felt useless.

JW What am I doing here?

SH Helping me.

JW You don't need me.

SH Yes. Yes I do.

SH There they are. Quick, we've got to stop them before they hurt someone else. Click on the chatroom 'THEPOOL'

John did as he was told, not realizing the possible danger he was putting himself in.

...

JIM Nice to see you here, SH.

JIM Have you enjoyed my little game?

JIM Don't bother answering; I know you have.

SH People have died.

JIM That's what people DO.

John felt a chill run down his spine that shook him to the bone. He remained silent, watching as the two dangerous men interacted.

SH So you are the one that's been causing all the trouble, then?

JIM That much is obvious. I thought you'd have been better than that.

SH I'm really not.

JIM You really are.

John was ready to step in any time if SH needed him.

JIM Would you like me to explain this all to you? You must be dying to know.

SH Hm.

JIM Fine, then. I guess you'll never know.

SH What do you want me to do?

JIM I want you to beg.

SH I've never begged before in my life, and I don't intend to start now.

JIM ...

SH ...

John could tell the two idiots were about to become locked in an eternal stalemate.

SH How did you do it?

SH Just tell me how you did it.

SH Please.

JIM Fine.

JIM Click and you shall find the answers you seeeeeeek:

JIM Link.

Before John could type a reaction, both JIM and SH disappeared from the log screen, leaving John alone in the chatroom. John panicked, worried that something might happen to his new friend. He tried clicking the link, but nothing happened. Furious, John waited for something, anything to happen.

...

J Thought it was better we talk somewhere more private.

S I agree.

J I love your little pet. Was he very easy to train?

S I thought we were talking about you?

J Oh, I don't like to be selfish.

S Tell me how you did it.

J Easy.

J Simple.

J Obvious.

J Rudimentary.

J Really a miracle you haven't figured it out yet.

S Just tell me.

J Fine. I talk to them, and then they killed themselves.

S Interesting.

J Not really. People are painfully easy to manipulate.

J Even you.

S But not you.

J No.

J Nothing gets to me, and nothing ever will.

S Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm afraid I've got to be off.

J I don't think so.

Sherlock tried clicking out of the page, but every time he did so, the screen would jiggle and nothing would happen. He was stuck on the page; trapped in a conversation with a madmen.

S I could just leave my computer, you know. I could actually physically just walk away.

J But you won't do that.

S No, I won't. Care to guess why?

J Because you're an idiot.

S Aren't we all?

J Back to business.

J I'm going to talk to you, and then you're going to kill yourself.

S Oh, what? Are you going to say something cruel? Call me a freak or a loser or a psychopath? If I let every single bad thing someone said get to me I wouldn't be able to get out of bed int he morning. Do your worst.

J No, and that's the best part. I don't even have to say anything to you. You know it all already. You know what you are.

S Yes, I do.

S Do you?

J Good question.

J I suppose we'll find out.

J Thank you.

J Bless you.

S Catch you later.

J NO. YOU WON'T.


End file.
